Indirect Discoverers of the New World
The American continents were slow to yield their virginity. The all-conquering Romans, a half century after the birth of Christ, expanded their empire northwestward as far as Britain.
America was to be a child of Europe, not of a specific country, such as England.
Christian crusaders must take high rank among the indirect discoverers of America. Whatever their true motives, they were avowedly attempting to wrest the Holy Land from the polluting hand of the Moslem infidel.
By the time the strange-smelling goods reached the Italian merchants at Venice and Genoa, they were so costly that purchasers and profits alike were narrowly limited.
European appetites were further whetted when foot-loose Marco Polo, an Italian adventurer, returned to Europe in 1295, after a stay of nearly twenty years in China.
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